Belgian Beyond The Labyrinth always takes the time to come up with a carefully edited album. This time they even put up a crowdfunding action to make their fourth studio album and that is most likely the reason why it brims with guest musicians and guest vocalists on ‘The Art Of Resilience’. The fact that singer/guitarist Wim Nees is not in the band anymore, gave them the opportunity to search a different singer for every song. Thus a lot of work was put into this album. The production, done by Geert Fieuw and the band, plus the mix and mastering by Marc De Keyzer at the Atomika Studios, are done to a turn.

Beyond The Labyrinth plays so-called classic rock: hardrock with a sniff of AOR and slightly progressive influences. This album has a theme: picking up the pieces and go on after having a hard time. It turned into a homogeneous and familiar sounding disc, in despite of the fact that no less than twenty different guests can be heard. We are not going to sum them up all, but Erwin and Filip of FireForce, Tony Carlino (Max Pie), guitarist Dushan Petrossi, vocalist Chitral Samapala, David Reed and the late Wizz Beauprez cannot remain unmentioned. Everybody from this motley collective is doing a passionate job, but the biggest discovery for the undersigned happened to be singer Colin Flynn. It might be not everybody’s cup of tea, since he sings in a theatrical, almost pompous way (think of Kamelot or Savior Machine). It nearly sounds like crooning, but amazing it is! Just listen to ‘Prince Of Darkness’ and ‘Fall Of The Raven’. There the material gets a bit more dark and dramatic too and we like that. On the other hand there is ‘lighter’ stuff like the thoughtful ‘Someone Watching Over You’, the rather sleek ‘Liberation Day’ and the pop-rock of ‘If You Believe’ with David Reed Watson as vocalist. As usual the melodious touch and catchiness prevail, but we can enjoy loads of excellent guitar solos and keyboards bring in a lovely accent. Some of the songs are relished with strings and Nox String Quartet is responsible for that. Even the daughters of Geert contributed to the children’s choir in ‘Salve Mater’ with male lead vocals of Filip (FireForce). With respect we listen to the late Wizz Beauprez in ‘Carry On’, while Erwin Suetens, Geert Fieuw and Geert Annys share the guitar solos in it. Once again a very diverting album of Beyond The Labyrinth!

The Set Up (Innocence Presumed) (5:57)Carry On (3:48)Someone Watching Over You (3:36)Prince Of Darkness (5:21)Liberation Day (3:25)Shape Shifter (6:59)Can’t Get Over You (3:59)If You Believe (5:07)Salve Mater (5:42)Fall Of The Raven (5:27)Waiting For The Dawn (5:30)Virtual Connection (4:58)